INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT
(Chemistry)
MEASURING SOLUBILITY
AMIT KUMAR

CONTENTS
1. Certificate
2. Acknowledgement
3. Introduction
4. Objective
5. Theory
6. Materials and Equipment
7. Experimental Procedure
8. Observation
9. Conclusion
10. Result
11. Precautions
12. Bibliography

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that AMIT KUMAR of Kendriya
Vidyalaya No. 1 Jalahalli has successfully and
satisfactorily completed the investigatory project
in Chemistry.
This is a bonafide record of the project done
performed by him in the session 2015-2016.

Date
Name
:
Class and Section
Roll Number

Signature
Signature

:
:
:

(Subject teacher)
(Examiner)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude and
indebtedness to all the people who helped me
during the course of this project. Without
them, this project would not have been
possible.
In particular Im grateful to Mrs. Sarita
Ambrose, P.G.T. Chemistry for her guidance
and advice with regard to the topic at hand
and helping me get through with this project.
Also, my humble thanks to my friends and
friends for their support and cooperation.

INTRODUCTION
A good part of the substances we deal with in
daily life, such as milk, gasoline, shampoo,
wood, steel and air are mixtures. When the
mixture is homogenous, that is to say, when
its components are intermingled evenly, it is
called a solution. There are various types of
solutions, and these can be categorized by
state (gas, liquid, or solid). Many essential
chemical reactions and natural processes
occur in liquid solutions, particularly those
containing water (aqueous solutions) because
so many things dissolve in water. In fact,
water is sometimes referred to as the
universal solvent. The electrical charges in
water molecules help dissolve different kinds
of substances. Solutions form when the force
of attraction between solute and solvent is
greater than the force of attraction between
the particles in the solute .

If one takes a moment to consider aqueous

solutions, one quickly observes that they
exhibit many interesting properties:
1. Salt is spread on ice
collected on roads
in winters. When
the ice begins to
melt,
the
salt
dissolves
in
the
water and forms
salt water. With the
addition of salt the
melting point of
water increases and
the
snow
melts
away faster.

Before manually removing

snow, salt is spread on the
snow cover to ease the job.

2. Certain arctic fish have blood containing a high

concentration of a specific protein. This protein
behaves like a solute in a solution and lowers the
freezing point of the blood.

One can observe that the boiling point of a

solution is affected by the addition of a solute.
These two properties, namely freezing-point
depression and boiling-point elevation, are
called colligative properties.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this project is to measure the

solubility of some common chemicals:

Table salt (NaCl)

Epsom salt (MgSO4)

Sugar (Sucrose, C12H22O11).

THEORY
A saturated solution is a mixture in which no
more solute can be practically dissolved in a
solvent at a given temperature. It is said
practical because theoretically infinite amount
of solute can be added to a solvent, but after
a certain limit the earlier dissolved solute
particles start rearranging and come out at a
constant rate. Hence overall it appears that
no solute is dissolved after a given amount of
solute is dissolved. This is known as a
saturated solution.
Solubility depends on various factors like the
Ksp of the salt, bond strength between the
cation and anion, covalence of the bond,
extent of inter and intramolecular hydrogen
bonding, polarity, dipole moment. Also
physical conditions like temperature and
pressure also play very important roles as
they affect the kinetic energy of the
molecules.

MATERIALS AND
APPARATUS
To do this experiment following materials
and apparatus are required:
Distilled water
Metric liquid measuring cup (or graduated
cylinder)
Three clean glass jars or beakers
Non-iodized table salt (NaCl)
Epsom salts (MgSO4)
Sugar (sucrose, C12H22O11)
Disposable plastic spoons
Thermometer
Three shallow plates or saucers
Oven

Electronic kitchen balance (accurate to 0.1

g)

EXPERIMENTAL
PROCEDURE
1. Measured 100 mL of distilled water and
poured into a clean, empty beaker or jar.
2. Used the kitchen balance to weigh out the
suggested amount (see below) of the solute
to be tested.
a. 50 g Non-iodized table salt (NaCl)
b. 50 g Epsom salts (MgSO4)
c. 250 g Sugar (sucrose, C12H22O11)
3. Added a small amount of the solute to the
water and stirred with a clean disposable
spoon until dissolved.
4. Repeated this process, constantly adding
a small amount until the solute no longer
dissolved.

5. Weighed the amount of solute remaining

to determine how much was added to the
solution.
6. Tried to add more solute at the same
temperature and observed changes, if any.
7. Heated the solutions and added more
solute to the solutions.

OBSERVATIONS
SL.
NO.

SOLUTION

NaCl

MgSO4

C12H22O11

AMOUNT OF
SOLUTE
DISSOLVED IN
100ML
WATER TO MAKE A
SATURATED
SOLUTION.

MOLES
DISSOLVED

 Adding
more
solute
at
the
same
temperature to the saturated solutions
yielded no significant changes in NaCl and
Epsom salt. However at all temperatures the
saturation point of sucrose could not be
obtained exactly as due to the large size of
the molecule the solution became thick and
refraction was more prominent. Neglecting
this observation in the room for error, the
experiments agreed with the theory.
Adding more solute to heated solutions
increased the solubility in all the 3 cases.
The largest increase was shown by NaCl,
followed by Epsom salt and sucrose. These
facts too agreed with the theory as at high
temperatures
the
kinetic
energy
of
molecules increases and the collisions are
more effective.

CONCLUSION
The solubility of NaCl is the highest as it an
ionic salt and easily dissociates in water. Also
since the size of both the cation and anion are
small, the collisions are more and hence
probability of dissociation is high. The
solubility of MgSO4 is also high as it is also an
ionic salt, but due to a larger anion, collisions
are not very effective. The solubility of
C12H22O11is the least as it a very large
molecule due to which hydrogen bonding with
the water molecules is not very effective. Also
due to the large number of carbon and
oxygen atoms, intermolecular
H-bonding
is
more
dominant
than
intramolecular
H-bonding.

NaCl Solution

Sucrose Solution

Epsom Salt Solution

PRECAUTIONS
While adding the solute to the solvent, the
solution should be stirred slowly so as to
avoid the formation of any globules.
Stirring should not be vigorous as the kinetic
energy of the molecules might change due
to which solubility can increase.
While stirring, contact with the walls of the
container should be avoided as with every
collision, an impulse is generated which
makes the dissolved solute particles
rearrange themselves. As a result solubility
can decrease.
The temperature while conducting all the
three experiments should be approximately
same.
Epsom salt should be first dried in order to
remove
the
water
of
crystallization
(MgSO4.7H2O).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chemistry, textbook for Class 12th (NCERT)
Pradeeps Chemistry, S.C.Kheterpal
Wikipedia.com ; Solutions
Lab Manual in Chemistry for Class 12